Twinking out? Also Ring-Dings being hoarded!

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels November 16, 2012 - 11:40am

As a child the one junk food allowed in my lunch bag (and it was a bag--brown bag) was Salerno Butter Cookies (and they weren't junk, they were cookies!).I recall a tussle with my own children over lunch bag fare and I think Twinkies was one of our battlegrounds. Now Twinkies has fallen on hard times with the junk food police. This may be the end--bankruptcy! Or maybe not (this is what hedge funds buy).The decision to shut down "spells the end of Hostess, an 82-year-old company that has endured wars, countless diet fads and even an earlier Chapter 11 filing. But the liquidation may not mean the end of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread. Such sweet treats could find new life under a different owner, once the company begins an auction of its brands and assets." NYTimes[1]Just in case this is the end, here is a receipe for homemade Twinkies[2] (in 10 easy steps).MORE, if you can believe it. There are some people who think more important issues should be taken up here (say carnage in the Middle East), but the paper of record has FOUR stories today on the death of an American icon. The best is Dan Barry's[3] mouth watering account of what it's like to eat a "Ring Ding." Two business page stories and an op-ed piece by a Vietnamese-American about Twinkies and assimilation round out the coverage. What could be more important?Just One More: How did this happen?A Bain-style killing of Twinkies[4]